Vinologue
| Vinologue logo | |
| Status | active |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2007 |
| Founder | Miquel Hudin & Èlia Varela i Serra |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Distribution | international |
| Nonfiction topics | Travel/Enotourism guidebooks |
| Official website | www.vinologue.net |
Vinologue is a publisher of enotourism guidebooks founded by Miquel Hudin and Èlia Varela i Serra in 2007. The guides are designed to allow those interested in enotourism to visit "Big Wines from Small Regions" and they focus exclusively on the wines as well as the gastronomy and local culture of small regions throughout the world.[1]
The first Vinologue Guide was for Dalmatia in Croatia and was released in 2008.
History
After several trips throughout Europe in the early 2000s the founders discovered that traditional travel guidebooks made little to no mention of the wines or the culture and gastronomy that surrounds it. In 2007 they started researching a guide for the coastal Dalmatia region in Croatia.[1][2] While researching the guide, they found the wines of neighboring Herzegovina to be of high quality as well and decided to release two guides instead of the original one.[3]
All of the guides were initially released in the digital EPUB format. They slowly added other titles such as Stellenbosch in South Africa.[4] It was in 2012 that they released their first official print guide (alongside the digital version) for the Empordà region of Catalonia due to demand from the winemakers.[5] It was the first English language enotourism guide of its kind in all of Spain.[4] This was followed by a guide in print and digital for DOQ Priorat that was released simultaneously in separate English and Catalan editions and was the first enotourism guide for the internationally renown wine region.[6]
Methodology
The guides are different from other travel guidebooks in that in addition to providing travel information, history, and basic language information, they also provide reviews of the wines produced by each winery covered creating a hybrid book that is part travel guide and part wine guide, thus the name, 'vinologue' which is a portmanteau of 'vino' and 'travelogue'.[7] The guides work to make wine both approachable and affordable for any audience and they purposefully don't award numeric scores to wines given that beyond tasting notes, they believe scores to be highly subjective and personal.[2][5][8][9]
Both the print and digital editions of the guides are focused on being "21st century books" with GPS coordinates from wineries, QR Codes, and other digital media integration.[2][10]
Each guide requires a great deal of work by the authors involved as they live in the region for several months while working on the research in order to achieve a full first person point of view.[6][7][9][11] The guides are written fully independently with the wineries and other businesses mentioned not paying for inclusion and the local governmental bodies not funding publication.[12]
Titles
- Vinologue Dalmatia (2008)
- Vinologue Herzegovina (2008)
- Vinologue Stellenbosch (2011)
- Vinologue Empordà (2012)
- Vinologue Priorat (2013)
- Vinologue Menorca (2013)
Awards
The Vinologue Empordà guide received the Gourmand award of "Best Enotourism Book" from a United States publisher in 2012.[13]
Popular Culture
They were the first to coin the term, flying wine to describe wines that were made in rented facilities that they winemaker didn't own. These are often encountered in Priorat and neighboring DO Montsant.[6]
References
- ^ a b "About". Vinologue. Retrieved 16 June 2013.
- ^ a b c "Interview with Miquel Hudin". Scoutmob.com. Retrieved 16 June 2013.
- ^ Miquel Hudin & Elia Varela Serra (2012). Vinologue Herzegovina. Leavenworth Press. p. 150. ISBN 978-0-983-77181-4.
- ^ a b "L'editorial 'Vinologue' publica una guia en anglès dels vins i cellers empordanesos" (in Catalan). Ara. Retrieved 1 June 2013.
- ^ a b "Vinologue/Big wines from small regions" (in Catalan). Ruth Troyano. Retrieved 18 June 2013.
- ^ a b c "Èlia Varela i Miquel Hudin, autors de la primera guia d'enoturisme de la DOQ Priorat" (in Catalan). Vidirecte. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
- ^ a b "Vinologue Priorat, la mejor guía de enoturismo del Priorat" (in Spanish). Del racimo al paladar. Retrieved 2 June 2013.
- ^ Miquel Hudin & Elia Varela Serra (2013). Vinologue Priorat. Leavenworth Press. p. 432. ISBN 978-0-983-77185-2.
- ^ a b "Vinologue, fent país" (in Catalan). Envinats, El Punt Avui. Retrieved 6 June 2013.
- ^ "Vinologue: Guides: Dalmatia". Secret Dalmatia. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
- ^ "The Vinologue Priorat Guide". Celler Lo. Retrieved 1 June 2013.
- ^ "Disclaimers". Vinologue. Retrieved 16 June 2013.
- ^ "Vinologue Empordà wins a Gourmand Award". Vinologue. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
